Located in the summer constellation of Cygnus, the North American Nebula (NGC 7000 at the middle left of this image) and the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070 on the right) form a complex of hydrogen emission nebulae located just a few degrees east of the first magnitude star Deneb. Filling over 10 square degrees of sky, the complex shines from the hot hydrogen gas that is energized by the new stars formed in the region. For this reason, the nebulae respond well photographically to a narrow band Ha filter. This image combines my Hydrogen Alpha data with my RGB Color data to form an HaRGB version of this beautiful region.

Each of the two nebulae contain a distinctive bright feature. In the North American Nebula, the Cygnus Wall runs along "Baja California" within the North American. The Wall is very similar to the bright feature IC 5067 at the northern tip of the Pelican Nebula in that both of these areas contain intense star forming regions. These newly formed stars are shrouded in dust and also illuminate the surrounding nebula.

In this image, North is up. This image is cropped to 80% of the original frame.

This is the third HaRGB combination image I've taken, and this one features a total of over 41 hours of data collection. I'm still trying to perfect my technique for combining Ha and RGB, and I'm learning to control it better. In this version, I was very happy that I was able to add the Ha data as a luminosity layer, and was able to push the opacity of that layer up to 90%. While the image has a bit of the salmon color that can result from this type of combination, I don't feel its overly objectionable and it yielded some very nice details - particularly in NGC 7000's Cygnus Wall as well as the Pelican Nebula's IC 5067.